1 .TH mc 1 "30 October 1998"
4 mc \- Visual shell for Unix-like systems.
8 [\-abcCdfhPstuUVx?] [\-l log] [dir1 [dir2]] [-v file]
11 The Midnight Commander is a directory browser/file manager for
12 Unix-like operating systems.
17 Disables the usage of graphic characters for line drawing.
20 Forces black and white display.
23 Force color mode, please check the section
30 Used to specify a different color set in the command line. The format
31 of arg is documented in the
38 Disables mouse support.
41 Displays the compiled-in search paths for Midnight Commander files.
44 Reset softkeys to their default from the termcap/terminfo
45 database. Only useful on HP terminals when the function keys don't work.
48 Save the ftpfs dialog with the server in file.
51 At program end, the Midnight Commander will print the last working
52 directory. This function should not be used directly, instead, it should
53 be used from a special shell function that will automatically change the
54 current directory of the shell to the last directory the Midnight
55 Commander was in (thanks to Torben Fjerdingstad and Sergey for
56 contributing this function and the code implementing this option).
58 .B @prefix@/lib/mc/bin/mc.sh
59 (bash and zsh users) respectively
60 .B @prefix@/lib/mc/bin/mc.csh
61 (tcsh users) in order to have this function defined.
64 Turns on the slow terminal mode, in this mode the program will not
65 draw expensive line drawing characters and will toggle verbose mode
69 Used only if the code was compiled with Slang and terminfo: it makes
70 the Midnight Commander use the value of the
72 variable for the terminal information instead of the information on
73 the system wide terminal database
76 Disables the use of a concurrent shell (only makes sense if the
77 Midnight Commander has been built with concurrent shell support).
80 Enables the use of the concurrent shell support (only makes sense if
81 the Midnight Commander was built with the subshell support set as an
85 Enters the internal viewer to view the file specified.
88 Displays the version of the program.
91 Forces xterm mode. Used when running on xterm-capable terminals (two
92 screen modes, and able to send mouse escape sequences).
94 If specified, the first path name is the directory to show in the
95 selected panel; the second path name is the directory to be shown in
99 The screen of the Midnight Commander is divided into four parts.
100 Almost all of the screen space is taken up by two directory panels.
101 By default, the second line from the bottom of the screen is the
102 shell command line, and the bottom line shows the function key labels.
103 The topmost line is the
107 The menu bar line may not be visible, but appears if you click the
108 topmost line with the mouse or press the F9 key.
110 The Midnight Commander provides a view of two directories at the same
111 time. One of the panels is the current panel (a selection bar is in
112 the current panel). Almost all operations take place on the current
113 panel. Some file operations like Rename and Copy by default use the
114 directory of the unselected panel as a destination (don't worry, they
115 always ask you for confirmation first). For more information, see the
123 .\"Left and Right Menus"
129 You can execute system commands from the Midnight Commander by simply
130 typing them. Everything you type will appear on the shell command line,
131 and when you press Enter the Midnight Commander will execute the
132 command line you typed; read the
135 .\"Shell Command Line"
140 sections to learn more about the command line.
143 The Midnight Commander comes with mouse support. It is activated
144 whenever you are running on an
146 terminal (it even works if you take a telnet or rlogin connection to
147 another machine from the xterm) or if you are running on a Linux
150 mouse server running.
152 When you left click on a file in the directory panels, that file is
153 selected; if you click with the right button, the file is marked (or
154 unmarked, depending on the previous state).
156 Double-clicking on a file will try to execute the command if it is
157 an executable program; and if the
160 .\"Extension File Edit"
161 has a program specified for the file's extension, the specified
164 Also, it is possible to execute the commands assigned to the function
165 key labels by clicking on them.
167 If a mouse button is clicked on the top frame line of the directory panel,
168 it is scrolled one page up. Likewise, a click on the bottom frame line
169 will cause scrolling one page down. This frame line method works also
179 The default auto repeat rate for the mouse buttons is 400
180 milliseconds. This may be changed to other values by editing the
184 file and changing the
188 If you are running the Commander with the mouse support, you can bypass
189 the Commander and get the default mouse behavior (cutting and pasting
190 text) by holding down the Shift key.
193 Some commands in the Midnight Commander involve the use of the
195 (sometimes labeled CTRL or CTL) and the
197 (sometimes labeled ALT or even Compose) keys. In this manual we will
198 use the following abbreviations:
200 C-<chr> means hold the Control key while typing the character
201 <chr>. Thus C-f would be: hold the Control key and type f.
203 M-<chr> means hold the Meta or Alt key down while typing <chr>. If
204 there is no Meta or Alt key, type ESC, release it, then type the
207 All input lines in the Midnight Commander use an approximation to
208 the GNU Emacs editor's key bindings.
210 There are many sections which tell about the keys. The following are
217 section documents the keyboard shortcuts for the commands appearing in
218 the File menu. This section includes the function keys. Most of these
219 commands perform some action, usually on the selected file or the
226 section documents the keys which select a file or tag files as a
227 target for a later action (the action is usually one from the file
233 .\"Shell Command Line"
234 section list the keys which are used for entering and editing command
235 lines. Most of these copy file names and such from the directory
236 panels to the command line (to avoid excessive typing) or access the
237 command line history.
242 are used for editing input lines. This means both the command line and
243 the input lines in the query dialogs.
245 .SH " Miscellaneous Keys"
246 Here are some keys which don't fall into any of the other categories:
249 If there is some text in the command line (the one at the bottom of
250 the panels), then that command is executed. If there is no text in the
251 command line then if the selection bar is over a directory the
252 Midnight Commander does a
254 to the selected directory and reloads the information on the panel;
255 if the selection is an executable file then it is executed. Finally,
256 if the extension of the selected file name matches one of the
260 .\"Extension File Edit"
261 then the corresponding command is executed.
264 Repaint all the information in the Midnight Commander.
271 command on a file or on the tagged files.
278 command on the current file or on the tagged files.
281 Run the link command.
284 Run the symbolic link command.
287 Set the other panel display mode to information.
290 Set the other panel display mode to quick view.
296 .\"External panelize"
302 add directory to hotlist
307 Executes the Filtered view command, described in the
310 .\"Internal File Viewer"
327 When the program is being run in the Linux or SCO console or under an xterm,
328 it will show you the output of the previous command. When ran on the
329 Linux console, the Midnight Commander uses an external program
330 (cons.saver) to handle saving and restoring of information on the
333 When the subshell support is compiled in, you can type C-o at any time
334 and you will be taken back to the Midnight Commander main screen, to
335 return to your application just type C-o. If you have an application
336 suspended by using this trick, you won't be able to execute other
337 programs from the Midnight Commander until you terminate the suspended
340 .SH " Directory Panels"
341 This section lists the keys which operate on the directory panels. If
342 you want to know how to change the appearance of the panels take a
343 look at the section on
345 Left and Right Menus.
346 .\"Left and Right Menus"
349 Change the current panel. The old other panel becomes the new current
350 panel and the old current panel becomes the new other panel. The
351 selection bar moves from the old current panel to the new current
355 To tag files you may use the Insert key (the kich1 terminfo sequence)
356 or the C-t (Control-t) sequence. To untag files, just retag a tagged
359 .B M-g, M-h (or M-r), M-j.
360 Used to select the top file in a panel, the middle file and the bottom one,
364 Start a filename search in the directory listing. When the search is
365 active, the user input will be added to the search string instead of
366 the command line. If the
367 .I "Show mini-status"
368 option is enabled the search string is shown on the mini-status
369 line. When typing, the selection bar will move to the next file
370 starting with the typed letters. The
371 .I "backspace" or DEL
372 keys can be used to correct typing mistakes. If C-s is pressed
373 again, the next match is searched for.
376 Toggle the current display listing to show the next display listing
377 mode. With this it is possible to quickly switch from long listing
378 to regular listing and the user defined listing mode.
380 .B C-\\\\ (control-backslash).
385 and change to the selected directory.
388 This is used to select (tag) a group of files. The Midnight Commander
389 will prompt for a regular expression describing the group. When
391 are enabled, the regular expression is much like the regular
392 expressions in the shell (* standing for zero or more characters and ?
393 standing for one character). If
395 is off, then the tagging of files is done with normal regular
396 expressions (see ed (1)).
398 If the expression starts or ends with a slash (/), then it will select
399 directories instead of files.
402 Use the "\\" key to unselect a group of files. This is the opposite of
406 Move the selection bar to the previous entry in the panel.
409 Move the selection bar to the next entry in the panel.
412 Move the selection bar to the first entry in the panel.
415 Move the selection bar to the last entry in the panel.
418 Move the selection bar one page down.
421 Move the selection bar one page up.
424 If the other panel is a listing panel and you are standing on a
425 directory in the current panel, then the other panel contents are set
426 to the contents of the currently selected directory (like Emacs' dired
427 C-o key) otherwise the other panel contents are set to the parent dir
430 .B C-PageUp, C-PageDown
431 Only when ran on the Linux console: does a chdir to ".." and to the
432 currently selected directory respectively.
435 Moves to the previous directory in the history, equivalent
436 to depressing the '<' with the mouse.
439 Moves to the next directory in the history, equivalent
440 to depressing the '>' with the mouse.
443 Displays the directory history, equivalent to depressing the 'v' with
446 .SH " Shell Command Line"
447 This section lists keys which are useful to avoid excessive typing when
448 entering shell commands.
451 Copy the currently selected file name to the command line.
454 Same a M-Enter, this one only works on the Linux console.
457 Does the filename, command, variable, username and hostname
464 Copy the tagged files (or if there are no tagged files, the selected
465 file) of the current panel (C-x t) or of the other panel (C-x C-t) to
469 The first key sequence copies the current path name to the command
470 line, and the second one copies the unselected panel's path name to
474 The quote command can be used to insert characters that are otherwise
475 interpreted by the Midnight Commander (like the '+' symbol)
478 Use these keys to browse through the command history. M-p takes you
479 to the last entry, M-n takes you to the next one.
482 Displays the history for the current input line.
484 .SH " General Movement Keys"
485 The help viewer, the file viewer and the directory tree use common
486 code to handle moving. Therefore they accept exactly the same
487 keys. Each of them also accepts some keys of its own.
489 Other parts of the Midnight Commander use some of the same movement
490 keys, so this section may be of use for those parts too.
493 Moves one line backward.
496 Moves one line forward.
498 .B Prev Page, Page Up, M-v.
501 .B Next Page, Page Down, C-v.
505 Moves to the beginning.
510 The help viewer and the file viewer accept the following keys in
511 addition the to ones mentioned above:
513 .B b, C-b, C-h, Backspace, Delete.
520 Moves one half of a page up or down.
523 Moves to the beginning or to the end.
525 .SH " Input Line Keys"
526 The input lines (they are used for the
529 .\"Shell Command Line"
530 and for the query dialogs in the program) accept these keys:
533 puts the cursor at the beginning of line.
536 puts the cursor at the end of the line.
539 move the cursor one position left.
542 move the cursor one position right.
545 moves one word forward.
548 moves one word backward.
551 delete the previous character.
554 delete the character in the point (over the cursor).
557 sets the mark for cutting.
560 copies the text between the cursor and the mark to a kill buffer and
561 removes the text from the input line.
564 copies the text between the cursor and the mark to a kill buffer.
567 yanks back the contents of the kill buffer.
570 kills the text from the cursor to the end of the line.
573 Use these keys to browse through the command history. M-p takes you
574 to the last entry, M-n takes you to the next one.
576 .B M-C-h, M-Backspace
577 delete one word backward.
580 does the filename, command, variable, username and hostname
588 The menu bar pops up when you press F9 or click the mouse on the top
589 row of the screen. The menu bar has five menus: "Left", "File",
590 "Command", "Options" and "Right".
595 .\"Left and Right Menus"
596 allow you to modify the appearance of the left and right directory
603 lists the actions you can perform on the currently selected file or
610 lists the actions which are more general and bear no relation to the
611 currently selected file or the tagged files.
617 lists the actions which allow you to customize the Midnight Commander.
619 .SH " Left and Right Menus"
620 The outlook of the directory panels can be changed from the
626 .SH " Listing Mode..."
627 The listing mode view is used to display a listing of files, there are
628 four different listing modes available:
634 The full directory view shows the file name, the size of the file and
635 the modification time.
637 The brief view shows only the file name and it has two columns
638 (therefore showing twice as many files as other views). The long view
639 is similar to the output of
641 command. The long view takes the whole screen width.
643 If you choose the "User" display format, then you have to specify
646 The user display format must start with a panel size specifier. This
647 may be "half" or "full", and they specify a half screen panel and a
648 full screen panel respectively.
650 After the panel size, you may specify the two columns mode on the
651 panel, this is done by adding the number "2" to the user format
654 After this you add the name of the fields with an optional size
655 specifier. This are the available fields you may display:
658 displays the file name.
661 displays the file size.
664 is an alternative form of the
666 format. It displays the size of the files and for directories it just
667 shows SUB-DIR or UP--DIR.
670 displays a one character field type. This character is similar to
671 what is displayed by ls with the -F flag -
673 for executable files,
681 for character devices,
687 for symbolic links to directories and
689 for stalled symlinks (links that point nowhere).
692 file's last modification time.
695 file's last access time.
698 file's creation time.
701 a string representing the current permission bits of the file.
704 an octal value with the current permission bits of the file.
707 the number of links to the file.
716 the owner of the file.
719 the group of the file.
722 the inode of the file.
724 Also you may use these field names for arranging the display:
727 a space in the display format.
730 An asterisk if the file is tagged, a space if it's not.
733 This character is used to add a vertical line to the display format.
735 To force one field to a fixed size (a size specifier), you just add
736 a ':' and then the number of characters you want the field to have, if
737 the number is followed by the symbol '+', then the size specifies the
738 minimum field size, if the program finds out that there is more space
739 on the screen, it will then expand this field.
743 display corresponds to this format:
745 half type,name,|,size,|,mtime
749 display corresponds to this format:
751 full perm,space,nlink,space,owner,space,group,space,size,space,
754 This is a nice user display format:
756 half name,|,size:7,|,type,mode:3
758 Panels may also be set to the following modes:
761 The info view display information related to the currently
762 selected file and if possible information about the current file
766 The tree view is quite similar to the
770 feature. See the section about it for more information.
773 In this mode, the panel will switch to a reduced
776 .\"Internal File Viewer"
777 that displays the contents of the currently selected file, if you
778 select the panel (with the tab key or the mouse), you will have access
779 to the usual viewer commands.
782 The eight sort orders are by name, by extension, by modification time,
783 by access time, and by inode information modification time, by size,
784 by inode and unsorted. In the Sort order dialog box you can choose
785 the sort order and you may also specify if you want to sort in reverse
786 order by checking the reverse box.
788 By default directories are sorted before files but this can be changed
798 The filter command allows you to specify a shell pattern (for example
800 ) which the files must match to be shown. Regardless
801 of the filter pattern, the directories and the links to directories
802 are always shown in the directory panel.
805 The reread command reload the list of files in the directory. It is
806 useful if other processes have created or removed files. If you
807 have panelized file names in a panel this will reload the directory
808 contents and remove the panelized information (See the section
811 .\"External panelize"
812 for more information).
815 The Midnight Commander uses the F1 - F10 keys as keyboard shortcuts
816 for commands appearing in the file menu. The escape sequences for the
817 function keys are terminfo capabilities kf1 trough kf10. On terminals
818 without function key support, you can achieve the same functionality by
819 pressing the ESC key and then a number in the range 1 through 9 and 0
820 (corresponding to F1 to F9 and F10 respectively).
822 The File menu has the following commands (keyboard shortcuts in parentheses):
826 Invokes the built-in hypertext help viewer. Inside the
830 you can use the Tab key to select the next link and the Enter key to
831 follow that link. The keys Space and Backspace are used to move
832 forward and backward in a help page. Press F1 again to get the full
833 list of accepted keys.
841 The user menu provides an easy way to provide users with a menu and
842 add extra features to the Midnight Commander.
844 .B View (F3, Shift-F3)
846 View the currently selected file. By default this invokes the
849 .\"Internal File Viewer"
850 but if the option "Use internal view" is off, it invokes an external
851 file viewer specified by the
853 environment variable. If
855 is undefined, the "view" command is invoked. If you use Shift-F3
856 instead, the viewer will be invoked without doing any formatting or
857 preprocessing to the file.
859 .B Filtered View (M-!)
861 this command prompts for a command
862 and it's arguments (the argument defaults to the currently selected
863 file name), the output from such command is shown in the internal file
868 Currently it invokes the
870 editor, or the editor specified in the
872 environment variable, or the
875 .\"Internal File Editor"
876 if the use_internal_edit option is on.
880 Pop up an input dialog with destination that defaults to the directory
881 in the non-selected panel and copies the currently selected file (or
882 the tagged files, if there is at least one file tagged) to the
883 directory specified by the user in the input dialog. During this
884 process, you can press C-c or ESC to abort the operation. For details
885 about source mask (which will be usually either * or ^\\(.*\\)$ depending
886 on setting of Use shell patterns) and possible wildcards in the destination
892 On some systems, it is possible to do the copy in the background by
893 clicking on the background button (or pressing M-b in the dialog
898 is used to control the background process.
902 Create a hard link to the current file.
906 Create a symbolic link to the current file. To those of you who don't
907 know what links are: creating a link to a file is a bit like copying
908 the file, but both the source filename and the destination filename
909 represent the same file image. For example, if you edit one of these
910 files, all changes you make will appear in both files. Some people call
911 links aliases or shortcuts.
913 A hard link appears as a real file. After making it, there is no way of
914 telling which one is the original and which is the link. If you delete
915 either one of them the other one is still intact. It is very difficult
916 to notice that the files represent the same image. Use hard links when
917 you don't even want to know.
919 A symbolic link is a reference to the name of the original file. If
920 the original file is deleted the symbolic link is useless. It is quite
921 easy to notice that the files represent the same image. The Midnight
922 Commander shows an "@"-sign in front of the file name if it is a
923 symbolic link to somewhere (except to directory, where it shows a tilde (~)).
924 The original file which the link points to is shown on mini-status line if the
925 .I "Show mini-status"
926 option is enabled. Use symbolic links when you want to avoid the
927 confusion that can be caused by hard links.
931 Pop up an input dialog that defaults to the directory in the
932 non-selected panel and moves the currently selected file (or the
933 tagged files if there is at least one tagged file) to the directory
934 specified by the user in the input dialog. During the process, you
935 can press C-c or ESC to abort the operation. For more details look at Copy
936 operation above, most of the things are quite similar.
938 On some systems, it is possible to do the copy in the background by
939 clicking on the background button (or pressing M-b in the dialog
944 is used to control the background process.
948 Pop up an input dialog and creates the directory specified.
952 Delete the currently selected file or the tagged files in the
953 currently selected panel. During the process, you can press C-c or
954 ESC to abort the operation.
961 command if you have full command line and want to cd somewhere.
965 This is used to select (tag) a group of files. The Midnight Commander
966 will prompt for a regular expression describing the group. When
968 are enabled, the regular expression is much like the filename globbing
969 in the shell (* standing for zero or more characters and ? standing
970 for one character). If
972 is off, then the tagging of files is done with normal regular
973 expressions (see ed (1)).
975 To mark directories instead of files, the expression must start or end
978 .B Unselect group (\\\\)
980 Used to unselect a group of files. This is the opposite of the
984 .B Quit (F10, Shift-F10)
986 Terminate the Midnight Commander. Shift-F10 is used when you want to
987 quit and you are using the shell wrapper. Shift-F10 will not take you
988 to the last directory you visited with the Midnight Commander, instead
989 it will stay at the directory where you started the Midnight Commander.
992 This command is useful if you have a full command line and want to
995 .\"The cd internal command"
996 somewhere without having to yank and paste the command line. This command
997 pops up a small dialog, where you enter everything you would enter after
999 on the command line and then you press enter. This features all the things
1000 that are already in the
1002 internal cd command.
1003 .\"The cd internal command"
1010 command shows a tree figure of the directories.
1016 command allows you to search for a specific file. The "Swap panels"
1017 command swaps the contents of the two directory panels.
1019 The "Panels on/off" command shows the output of the last shell
1020 command. This works only on xterm and on Linux and SCO console.
1022 The Compare directories (C-x d) command compares the directory
1023 panels with each other. You can then use the Copy (F5) command to make
1024 the panels identical. There are three compare methods. The quick method
1025 compares only file size and file date. The thorough method makes a
1026 full byte-by-byte compare. The thorough method is not available if the
1027 machine does not support the mmap(2) system call. The size-only
1028 compare method just compares the file sizes and does not check the
1029 contents or the date times, it just checks the file size.
1031 The Command history command shows a list of typed commands. The
1032 selected command is copied to the command line. The command history
1033 can also be accessed by typing M-p or M-n.
1037 Directory hotlist (C-\\)
1039 command makes changing of the current directory to often used directories
1045 .\"External panelize"
1046 allows you to execute an external program, and
1047 make the output of that program the contents of the current panel.
1051 .\"Extension File Edit"
1052 command allows you to specify programs to executed when you try to
1053 execute, view, edit and do a bunch of other thing on files
1054 with certain extensions (filename endings). The
1058 command may be used for editing the user menu (which appears by
1061 .SH " Directory Tree"
1062 The Directory Tree command shows a tree figure of the directories. You
1063 can select a directory from the figure and the Midnight Commander will
1064 change to that directory.
1066 There are two ways to invoke the tree. The real directory tree command
1067 is available from Commands menu. The other way is to select tree view
1068 from the Left or Right menu.
1070 To get rid of long delays the Midnight Commander creates the tree
1071 figure by scanning only a small subset of all the directories. If the
1072 directory which you want to see is missing, move to its parent
1073 directory and press C-r (or F2).
1075 You can use the following keys:
1078 General movement keys
1079 .\"General Movement Keys"
1083 In the directory tree, exits the directory tree and changes to this
1084 directory in the current panel. In the tree view, changes to this
1085 directory in the other panel and stays in tree view mode in the
1088 .B C-r, F2 (Rescan).
1089 Rescan this directory. Use this when the tree figure is out of date:
1090 it is missing subdirectories or shows some subdirectories which don't
1094 Delete this directory from the tree figure. Use this to remove clutter
1095 from the figure. If you want the directory back to the tree figure
1096 press F2 in its parent directory.
1098 .B F4 (Static/Dynamic).
1099 Toggle between the dynamic navigation mode (default) and the static
1102 In the static navigation mode you can use the Up and Down keys to
1103 select a directory. All known directories are shown.
1105 In the dynamic navigation mode you can use the Up and Down keys to
1106 select a sibling directory, the Left key to move to the parent
1107 directory, and the Right key to move to a child directory. Only the
1108 parent, sibling and children directories are shown, others are left
1109 out. The tree figure changes dynamically as you traverse.
1118 Make a new directory below this directory.
1121 Delete this directory from the file system.
1124 Search the next directory matching the search string. If there is
1125 no such directory these keys will move one line down.
1128 Delete the last character of the search string.
1130 .B Any other character.
1131 Add the character to the search string and move to the next directory
1132 which starts with these characters. In the tree view you must first
1133 activate the search mode by pressing C-s. The search string is shown
1134 in the mini status line.
1136 The following actions are available only in the directory tree. They
1137 aren't supported in the tree view.
1140 Invoke the help viewer and show this section.
1143 Exit the directory tree. Do not change the directory.
1145 The mouse is supported. A double-click behaves like Enter. See
1152 The Find File feature first asks for the start directory for the
1153 search and the filename to be searched for. By pressing the Tree
1154 button you can select the start directory from the
1160 The contents field accepts regular expressions similar to egrep(1). That
1161 means you have to escape characters with a special meaning to egrep with "\\",
1162 e.g. if you search for "strcmp (" you will have to input "strcmp \\("
1163 (without the double quotes).
1165 You can start the search by pressing the Ok button.
1166 During the search you can stop from the Stop button and continue from
1169 You can browse the filelist with the up and down arrow keys. The Chdir
1170 button will change to the directory of the currently selected
1171 file. The Again button will ask for the parameters for a new
1172 search. The Quit button quits the search operation. The Panelize
1173 button will place the found files to the current directory panel so
1174 that you can do additional operations on them (view, copy, move,
1175 delete and so on). After panelizing you can press C-r to return to the
1176 normal file listing.
1178 It is possible to have a list of directories that the Find File
1179 command should skip during the search (for example, you may want to
1180 avoid searches on a CDROM or on a NFS directory that is mounted across
1183 Directories to be skipped should be set on the variable
1187 section of your ~/.mc/ini file.
1189 Directory components should be separated with a colon, here is an
1194 find_ignore_dirs=/cdrom:/nfs/wuarchive:/afs
1197 You may consider using the
1200 .\"External panelize"
1201 command for some operations. Find file command is for simple queries
1202 only, while using External panelize you can do as mysterious searches
1205 .SH " External panelize"
1206 The External panelize allows you to execute an external program, and
1207 make the output of that program the contents of the current panel.
1209 For example, if you want to manipulate in one of the panels all the
1210 symbolic links in the current directory, you can use external
1211 panelization to run the following command:
1214 find . -type l -print
1216 Upon command completion, the directory contents of the panel will no
1217 longer be the directory listing of the current directory, but all the
1218 files that are symbolic links.
1220 If you want to panelize all of the files that have been downloaded
1221 from your ftp server, you can use this awk command to extract the file
1222 name from the transfer log files:
1225 awk '$9 ~! /incoming/ { print $9 }' < /usr/adm/xferlog
1228 You may want to save often used panelize commands under a descriptive name,
1229 so that you can recall them quickly. You do this by typing the command on
1230 the input line and pressing Add new button. Then you enter a name under
1231 which you want the command to be saved. Next time, you just choose that
1232 command from the list and do not have to type it again.
1235 The Directory hotlist command shows the labels of the directories
1236 in the directory hotlist. The Midnight Commander will change to the
1237 directory corresponding to the selected label. From the hotlist dialog,
1238 you can remove already created label/directory pairs and add new ones.
1239 To add new directories quickly, you can use the Add to hotlist command
1240 (C-x h), which adds the current directory into the directory hotlist,
1241 asking just for the label for the directory.
1243 This makes cd to often used directories faster. You may consider using the
1244 CDPATH variable as described in
1247 .\"The cd internal command"
1250 .SH " Extension File Edit"
1251 This will invoke your editor on the file ~/.mc/ext. The format of this
1252 file is as follows (the format has changed with version 3.0):
1254 All lines starting with # or empty lines are thrown away.
1256 Lines starting in the first column should have following format:
1259 i.e. everything after
1268 (desc is then any extension (no wildcards), i.e. matches all the files
1269 *desc . Example: .tar matches *.tar)
1273 (desc is a regular expression)
1277 (file matches this if `file %f` matches regular expression desc
1278 (the filename: part from `file %f` is removed))
1282 (matches any file no matter what desc is)
1284 Other lines should start with a space or tab and should be of the format:
1286 .I keyword=commandNL
1287 (with no spaces around =), where
1292 (if the user presses Enter or doubleclicks it),
1298 (user drops some files on it) or any other
1299 user defined name (those will be listed in the extension dependent pop-up
1302 name is reserved for future use by mc.
1305 is any one-line shell command, with the simple
1308 .\"Macro Substitution"
1310 Target are evaluated from top to bottom (order is thus important).
1311 If some actions are missing, search continues as if this target didn't
1312 match (i.e. if a file matches the first and second entry and View action
1313 is missing in the first one, then on pressing F3 the View action from
1314 the second entry will be used. default should catch all the actions.
1316 .SH " Background Jobs"
1317 This lets you control the state of any background Midnight Commander
1318 process (only copy and move files operations can be done in the
1319 background). You can stop, restart and kill a background job from
1322 .SH " Menu File Edit"
1323 The user menu is a menu of useful actions that can be customized by
1324 the user. When you access the user menu, the
1325 file .mc.menu from the current directory is used if it exists,
1326 but only if it is owned by user or root and is not world-writable.
1327 If no such file found, ~/.mc/menu is tried in the same way,
1328 and otherwise mc uses the default system-wide menu
1329 @prefix@/lib/mc/mc.menu.
1331 The format of the menu file is very simple. Lines that start with
1332 anything but space or tab are considered entries for the menu (in
1333 order to be able to use it like a hot key, the first character should
1334 be a letter). All the lines that start with a space or a tab are the
1335 commands that will be executed when the entry is selected.
1337 When an option is selected all the command lines of the option are
1338 copied to a temporary file in the temporary directory (usually
1339 /usr/tmp) and then that file is executed. This allows the user to put
1340 normal shell constructs in the menus. Also simple macro substitution
1341 takes place before executing the menu code. For more information, see
1344 .\"Macro Substitution"
1346 Here is a sample mc.menu file:
1349 A Dump the currently selected file
1352 B Edit a bug report and send it to root
1354 mail -s "Midnight Commander bug" root < /tmp/mail.$$
1362 H Call the info hypertext browser
1365 J Copy current directory to other panel recursively
1366 tar cf - . | (cd %D && tar xvpf -)
1368 K Make a release of the current subdirectory
1369 echo -n "Name of distribution file: "
1371 ln -s %d `dirname %d`/$tar
1373 tar cvhf ${tar}.tar $tar
1375 = f *.tar.gz | f *.tgz & t n
1376 X Extract the contents of a compressed tar file
1380 .B Default Conditions
1382 Each menu entry may be preceded by a condition. The condition must
1383 start from the first column with a '=' character. If the condition is
1384 true, the menu entry will be the default entry.
1387 Condition syntax: = <sub-cond>
1388 or: = <sub-cond> | <sub-cond> ...
1389 or: = <sub-cond> & <sub-cond> ...
1391 Sub-condition is one of following:
1393 y <pattern> syntax of current file matching pattern?
1395 f <pattern> current file matching pattern?
1396 F <pattern> other file matching pattern?
1397 d <pattern> current directory matching pattern?
1398 D <pattern> other directory matching pattern?
1399 t <type> current file of type?
1400 T <type> other file of type?
1401 x <filename> is it executable filename?
1402 ! <sub-cond> negate the result of sub-condition
1405 Pattern is a normal shell pattern or a regular expression, according
1406 to the shell patterns option. You can override the global value of
1407 the shell patterns option by writing "shell_patterns=x" on the first
1408 line of the menu file (where "x" is either 0 or 1).
1411 Type is one or more of the following characters:
1425 For example 'rlf' means either regular file, link or fifo. The 't'
1426 type is a little special because it acts on the panel instead of the
1427 file. The condition '=t t' is true if there are tagged files in the
1428 current panel and false if not.
1430 If the condition starts with '=?' instead of '=' a debug trace will be
1431 shown whenever the value of the condition is calculated.
1433 The conditions are calculated from left to right. This means
1435 = f *.tar.gz | f *.tgz & t n
1439 ( (f *.tar.gz) | (f *.tgz) ) & (t n)
1442 Here is a sample of the use of conditions:
1445 = f *.tar.gz | f *.tgz & t n
1446 L List the contents of a compressed tar-archive
1447 gzip -cd %f | tar xvf -
1450 .B Addition Conditions
1452 If the condition begins with '+' (or '+?') instead of '=' (or '=?') it
1453 is an addition condition. If the condition is true the menu entry will
1454 be included in the menu. If the condition is false the menu entry will
1455 not be included in the menu.
1457 You can combine default and addition conditions by starting condition
1458 with '+=' or '=+' (or '+=?' or '=+?' if you want debug trace). If you
1459 want to use two different conditions, one for adding and another for
1460 defaulting, you can precede a menu entry with two condition lines, one
1461 starting with '+' and another starting with '='.
1463 Comments are started with '#'. The additional comment lines must start
1464 with '#', space or tab.
1467 The Midnight Commander has some options that may be toggled on and
1468 off in several dialogs which are accessible from this menu. Options
1469 are enabled if they have an asterisk or "x" in front of them.
1475 command pops up a dialog from which you can change most of settings of
1476 the Midnight Commander.
1482 command pops up a dialog from which you may select which characters is your
1483 terminal able to display.
1489 command pops up a dialog from which you specify which actions you want to
1496 command pops up a dialog from which you test some keys which are not working
1497 on some terminals and you may fix them.
1503 command pops up a dialog from which you specify some VFS related options.
1509 command pops up a dialog from which you specify a bunch of options how mc
1510 looks like on the screen.
1516 command saves the current settings of the Left, Right and Options
1517 menus. A small number of other settings is saved, too.
1519 .SH " Configuration"
1520 The options in this dialog are divided into three groups:
1521 Panel Options, Pause after run and Other Options.
1525 .I Show Backup Files.
1526 By default the Midnight Commander doesn't show files ending in '~'
1527 (like GNU's ls option -B).
1529 .I Show Hidden Files.
1530 By default the Midnight Commander will show all files that start with
1534 By default when you mark a file (with either C-t or the Insert key)
1535 the selection bar will move down.
1538 When this option is enabled, when you press the
1540 key, the pull down menus will be activated, else, you will
1541 only be presented with the menu title, and you will have
1542 to select the entry with the arrow keys or the first
1543 letter and from there select your option in the menu.
1546 When this option is enabled, all files and directories are shown mixed
1547 together. If the option is off, directories (and links to directories)
1548 are shown at the beginning of the listing, and other files below.
1550 .I Fast directory reload.
1551 This option is off by default. If you activate the fast reload, the
1552 Midnight Commander will use a trick to determine if the directory
1553 contents have changed. The trick is to reload the directory only if
1554 the i-node of the directory has changed; this means that reloads only
1555 happen when files are created or deleted. If what changes is the
1556 i-node for a file in the directory (file size changes, mode or owner
1557 changes, etc) the display is not updated. In these cases, if you have
1558 the option on, you have to rescan the directory manually (with C-r).
1562 After executing your commands, the Midnight Commander can pause, so
1563 that you can examine the output of the command. There are three
1564 possible settings for this variable:
1567 Means that you do not want to see the output of your command. If you
1568 are using the Linux or SCO console or an xterm, you will be able to see the
1569 output of the command by typing C-o.
1571 .I "On dumb terminals"
1572 You will get the pause message on terminals that are not capable of
1573 showing the output of the last command executed (any terminal that is
1574 not an xterm or the Linux console).
1577 The program will pause after executing all of your commands.
1581 .I Verbose operation.
1582 This toggles whether the file Copy, Rename and Delete operations are
1583 verbose (i.e., display a dialog box for each operation). If you have a
1584 slow terminal, you may wish to disable the verbose operation. It is
1585 automatically turned off if the speed of your terminal is less than
1589 If this option is enabled, the Midnight
1590 Commander computes total byte sizes and total number of files
1591 prior to any Copy, Rename and Delete operations. This will
1592 provide you with a more accurate progress bar at the expense
1593 of some speed. This option has no effect, if
1594 .I Verbose operation
1598 By default the Select, Unselect and Filter commands will use shell-like
1599 regular expressions. The following conversions are performed to achieve
1600 this: the '*' is replaced by '.*' (zero or more characters); the '?'
1601 is replaced by '.' (exactly one character) and '.' by the literal
1602 dot. If the option is disabled, then the regular expressions are the
1603 ones described in ed(1).
1606 If this option is enabled, when you exit the Midnight Commander the
1607 configurable options of the Midnight Commander are saved in the
1611 If this option is enabled, the user menu will be invoked at startup.
1612 Useful for building menus for non-unixers.
1614 .I Use internal editor.
1615 If this option is enabled, the built-in file editor is used to edit
1616 files. If the option is disabled, the editor specified in the
1618 environment variable is used.
1619 If no editor is specified,
1621 is used. See the section on the
1623 internal file editor.
1624 .\"Internal File Editor"
1626 .I Use internal viewer.
1627 If this option is enabled, the built-in file viewer is used to view
1628 files. If the option is disabled, the pager specified in the
1630 environment variable is used.
1631 If no pager is specified, the
1633 command is used. See the section on the
1635 internal file viewer.
1636 .\"Internal File Viewer"
1638 .I Complete: show all.
1639 By default the Midnight Commander
1640 pops up all possible
1644 if the completion is
1645 ambiguous if you press
1647 for the second time, for the
1648 first time it just completes as much as possible and in
1649 the case of ambiguity beeps. If you want to see all the
1650 possible completions already after the first
1652 pressing, enable this option.
1655 If this option is enabled, the
1656 Midnight Commander shows a rotating dash in the upper right corner
1657 as a work in progress indicator.
1659 .I Lynx-like motion.
1660 If this option is enabled,
1661 you may use the arrows keys to automatically chdir if the
1662 current selection is a subdirectory and the shell command
1663 line is empty. By default, this setting is off.
1666 If this option is enabled, the
1670 command will be invoked if you run the
1680 .I Cd follows links.
1681 This option, if set, causes the Midnight Commander to follow the
1682 logical chain of directories when changing current directory
1683 either in the panels, or using the cd command. This is the default
1684 behavior of bash. When unset, the Midnight Commander follows the
1685 real directory structure, so cd .. if you've entered that directory
1686 through a link will move you to the current directory's real parent
1687 and not to the directory where the link was present.
1690 If this option is enabled, deleting files
1691 unintentionally will get more difficult. The default
1692 selection in the confirmation dialog changes from the "Yes"
1693 to the "No" button and deletion of non empty directories has to be
1694 confirmed by entering the word
1697 By default this option is disabled.
1700 This is used to configure the range of visible characters on the
1701 screen. This setting may be 7-bits if your terminal/curses supports
1702 only seven output bits, ISO-8859-1 displays all the characters in the
1703 ISO-8859-1 map and full 8 bits is for those terminals that can display
1704 full 8 bit characters.
1707 In this menu you configure the confirmation options for file deletion,
1708 overwriting, execution by pressing enter and quitting the program.
1711 This dialog allows you to test and redefine functional keys, cursor
1712 arrows and some other keys to make them work properly on your terminal.
1713 They often don't, since many terminal databases are incomplete or broken.
1715 You can move around with the Tab key and with the vi moving keys ('h'
1716 left, 'j' down, 'k' up and 'l' right). Once you press any cursor movement
1717 key and it is recognized, you can use that key as well.
1719 You can test keys just by pressing each of them. When you press a
1720 key and it is recognized properly, OK should appear next to the name
1721 of that key. Once a key is marked OK it starts working as usually,
1722 e.g. F1 pressed the first time will just check that the F1 key works,
1723 but after that it will show help. The same applies to the arrow keys.
1724 The Tab key should be working always.
1726 If some keys do not work properly then you won't see OK appear after
1727 pressing that key. Then you may want to redefine it. Do it by pressing
1728 the button with the name of that key (either by the mouse or by Enter
1729 or Space after selecting the button with Tab or arrows). Then a message
1730 box will appear asking you to press that key. Do it and wait until the
1731 message box disappears. If you want to abort, just press Escape once
1734 When you finish with all the keys, you can Save them. The definitions
1735 for the keys you have redefined will be written into the [terminal:TERM]
1736 section of your ~/.mc/ini file (where TERM is the name of your current
1737 terminal). The definitions of the keys that were already working properly
1741 This option gives you control over the settings of the
1744 .\"Virtual File System"
1747 The Midnight Commander keeps in memory the information
1748 related to some of the virtual file systems to speed up
1749 the access to the files in the file system (for example,
1750 directory listings fetched from ftp servers).
1752 Moreover in order to access the contents of compressed files
1753 (for example, compressed tar files) the Midnight Commander
1754 has to create a temporary uncompressed file on your disk.
1756 Since both the information in memory and the temporary files on
1757 disk take up resources, you may want to tune the parameters of
1758 the cached information to decrease your resource usage or to maximize
1759 the speed of access to frequently used file systems.
1761 The Tar file system is quite clever about how it handles
1762 tar files: it just loads the directory entries and when it
1763 needs to use the information contained in the tar file, it
1766 In the wild, tar files are usually kept compressed (plain
1767 tar files are species in extinction), and because of the
1768 nature of those files (the directory entries for the tar
1769 files is not there waiting for us to be loaded), the tar
1770 file system has to uncompress the file
1771 on the disk in a temporary location and then access the
1772 uncompressed file as a regular tar file.
1774 Now, since we all love to browse files and tar files all
1775 over the disk, it's common that you will leave a tar file
1776 and the re-enter it later. Since uncompression is slow,
1777 the Midnight Commander will cache the information in
1778 memory for a limited amount of time, after you hit the
1779 timeout, all of the resources associated with the
1780 file system will be freed. The default timeout is set to
1787 keeps the directory listing it fetches from a ftp server
1788 in a cache. The cache
1789 expire time is configurable with the
1790 .I ftpfs directory cache timeout
1792 A low value for this
1793 option may slow down every operation on the ftp file System
1794 because every operation is accompanied by a query of the
1797 Moreover you can define a proxy host for doing ftp transfers
1798 and configure the Midnight Commander to always use the proxy host.
1804 for more information.
1807 The layout dialog gives you a possibility to change the general layout
1808 of screen. You can specify whether the menubar, the command prompt,
1809 the hintbar and the function keybar are visible. On the Linux or SCO console
1810 you can specify how many lines are shown in the output window.
1812 The rest of the screen area is used for the two directory panels. You
1813 can specify whether the area is split to the panels in vertical or
1814 horizontal direction. The split can be equal or you can specify an
1817 By default all contents of the directory panels are displayed with
1818 the same color, but you can specify whether
1822 are highlighted with special
1826 If permission highlighting is enabled, the parts of the
1833 which are valid for the user running Midnight Commander
1834 are highlighted with the color defined with the
1836 keyword. If file type highlighting is enabled, files are colored according
1837 to their file type (e.g. directory, core file, executable, ...).
1841 option is enabled, one line of status
1842 information about the currently selected item is showed at the bottom
1846 At startup the Midnight Commander will try to load initialization
1847 information from the ~/.mc/ini file. If this file doesn't exist,
1848 it will load the information from the system-wide configuration file,
1849 located in @prefix@/lib/mc/mc.ini. If the system-wide configuration
1850 file doesn't exist, MC uses the default settings.
1854 command creates the ~/.mc/ini file by saving the current settings
1858 .\"Left and Right Menus"
1867 option, MC will always save the current settings when exiting.
1869 There also exist settings which can't be changed from the menus. To
1870 change these settings you have to edit the setup file with your
1871 favorite editor. See the section on
1874 .\"Special Settings"
1875 for more information.
1878 .SH "Executing operating system commands"
1879 You may execute commands by typing them directly in the Midnight
1880 Commander's input line, or by selecting the program you want to
1881 execute with the selection bar in one of the panels and hitting Enter.
1883 If you press Enter over a file that is not executable, the Midnight
1884 Commander checks the extension of the selected file against the
1888 .\"Extension File Edit"
1889 If a match is found then the code associated with that extension is
1890 executed. A very simple
1893 .\"Macro Substitution"
1894 takes place before executing the command.
1896 .SH " The cd internal command"
1899 command is interpreted by the Midnight Commander, it is not passed to
1900 the command shell for execution. Thus it may not handle all of the
1901 nice macro expansion and substitution that your shell does, although it
1904 .I Tilde substitution
1905 The (~) will be substituted with your home directory, if you append a
1906 username after the tilde, then it will be substituted with the login
1907 directory of the the specified user.
1909 For example, ~guest is the home directory for the user guest, while
1910 ~/guest is the directory guest in your home directory.
1912 .I Previous directory
1913 You can jump to the directory you were previously by using the special
1914 directory name '-' like this:
1917 .I CDPATH directories
1918 If the directory specified to the
1920 command is not in the current directory, then The Midnight Commander
1921 uses the value in the environment variable
1923 to search for the directory in any of the named directories.
1925 For example you could set your
1927 variable to ~/src:/usr/src, allowing you to change your directory to
1928 any of the directories inside the ~/src and /usr/src directories, from
1929 any place in the file system by using it's relative name (for example
1930 cd linux could take you to /usr/src/linux).
1932 .SH " Macro Substitution"
1940 extension dependent command,
1941 .\"Extension File Edit"
1942 or running a command from the command line input,
1943 a simple macro substitution takes place.
1949 The indent of blank space, equal the cursor column
1950 position. For edit menu only.
1954 The syntax type of current file. For edit menu only.
1958 The block file name.
1962 The error file name.
1966 The current menu name.
1970 The current file name.
1974 The extension of current file name.
1978 The current file name without extension.
1982 The current directory name.
1986 The current file in the unselected panel.
1990 The directory name of the unselected panel.
1994 The currently tagged files.
1998 The tagged files in the unselected panel.
2004 Similar to the %t and %T macros, but in addition the files are
2005 untagged. You can use this macro only once per menu file entry or
2006 extension file entry, because next time there will be no tagged
2013 The selected files: The tagged files if there are any. Otherwise the
2018 Dropped files. In all places except in the Drop action of the
2021 .\"Extension File Edit"
2022 this will become a null string, in the Drop action it will be replaced
2023 with a space separated list of files that were dropped on the file.
2027 This is a special macro that is used to change the current directory
2028 to the directory specified in front of it. This is used primarily as
2031 Virtual File System.
2032 .\"Virtual File System"
2036 This macro is used to invoke the internal viewer. This macro can be
2037 used alone, or with arguments. If you pass any arguments to this
2038 macro, they should be enclosed in brackets.
2042 to force the viewer into ascii mode;
2044 to force the viewer into hex mode;
2046 to tell the viewer that it should interpret the bold and underline
2049 to tell the viewer to not interpret nroff commands for making the text
2058 Prompt for the substitution. An input box is shown and the text inside
2059 the braces is used as a prompt. The macro is substituted by the text
2060 typed by the user. The user can press ESC or F10 to cancel. This macro
2061 doesn't work on the command line yet.
2063 .SH " The subshell support"
2064 The subshell support is a compile time option, that works with the
2065 shells: bash, tcsh and zsh.
2067 When the subshell code is activated the Midnight Commander will
2068 spawn a concurrent copy of your shell (the one defined in the
2070 variable and if it is not defined, then the one in the /etc/passwd
2071 file) and run it in a pseudo terminal, instead of invoking a new shell
2072 each time you execute a command, the command will be passed to the
2073 subshell as if you had typed it. This also allows you to change the
2074 environment variables, use shell functions and define aliases that are
2075 valid until you quit the Midnight Commander.
2079 you can specify startup
2080 commands for the subshell in your ~/.mc/bashrc file and
2081 special keyboard maps in the ~/.mc/inputrc file.
2083 users may specify startup commands in the ~/.mc/tcshrc file.
2085 When the subshell code is used, you can suspend applications at any
2086 time with the sequence C-o and jump back to the Midnight Commander, if
2087 you interrupt an application, you will not be able to run other
2088 external commands until you quit the application you interrupted.
2090 An extra added feature of using the subshell is that the prompt
2091 displayed by the Midnight Commander is the same prompt that you are
2092 currently using in your shell.
2098 section has more information on how you can control the subshell code.
2100 .SH " Controlling Midnight Commander"
2101 The Midnight Commander defines an environment variable
2102 MC_CONTROL_FILE. The commands executed by MC may give instructions to
2103 MC by writing to the file specified by this variable. This is only
2104 available if you compiled your copy of the Midnight Commander with the
2107 The following instructions are supported.
2110 clear_tags Clear all tags.
2111 tag <filename> Tag specified file.
2112 untag <filename> Untag specified file.
2113 select <filename> Move pointer to file.
2114 change_panel Switch between panels.
2115 cd <path> Change directory.
2118 If the first letter of the instruction is in lower case it operates on
2119 the current panel. If the letter is in upper case the instruction
2120 operates on the other panel. The additional letters must be in lower
2121 case. Instructions must be separated by exactly one space, tab or
2122 newline. The instructions don't work in the Info, Tree and Quick
2123 views. The first error causes the rest to be ignored.
2126 The Chmod window is used to change the attribute bits in a group of
2127 files and directories. It can be invoked with the C-x c key combination.
2129 The Chmod window has two parts -
2134 In the File section are displayed the name of the file or directory
2135 and its permissions in octal form, as well as its owner and group.
2137 In the Permissions section there is a set of check buttons which
2138 correspond to the file attribute bits. As you change the attribute
2139 bits, you can see the octal value change in the File section.
2141 To move between the widgets (buttons and check buttons) use the
2145 key. To change the state of the check buttons or to select a button
2148 You can also use the hotkeys on the buttons to quickly activate them.
2149 Hotkeys are shown as highlighted letters on the buttons.
2151 To set the attribute bits, use the Enter key.
2153 When working with a group of files or directories, you just click on
2154 the bits you want to set or clear. Once you have selected the bits
2155 you want to change, you select one of the action buttons (Set marked
2158 Finally, to set the attributes exactly to those specified, you can use
2161 button, which will act on all the tagged files.
2164 set only marked attributes to all selected files
2167 set marked bits in attributes of all selected files
2170 clear marked bits in attributes of all selected files
2173 set the attributes of one file
2176 cancel the Chmod command
2179 The Chown command is used to change the owner/group of a file. The hot
2180 key for this command is C-x o.
2182 .SH "Advanced Chown"
2183 The Advanced Chown command is the
2191 command combined into one window. You can change the permissions and
2192 owner/group of files at once.
2194 .SH "File Operations"
2195 When you copy, move or delete files the Midnight Commander shows the
2196 file operations dialog. It shows the files currently being operated on
2197 and there are at most three progress bars. The file bar tells how big
2198 part of the current file has been copied so far. The count bar tells
2199 how many of tagged files have been handled so far. The bytes bar tells
2200 how big part of total size of the tagged files has been handled so
2201 far. If the verbose option is off the file and bytes bars are not
2204 There are two buttons at the bottom of the dialog. Pressing the Skip
2205 button will skip the rest of the current file. Pressing the Abort
2206 button will abort the whole operation, the rest of the files are
2209 There are three other dialogs which you can run into during the file
2212 The error dialog informs about error conditions and has three
2213 choices. Normally you select either the Skip button to skip the file
2214 or the Abort button to abort the operation altogether. You can also
2215 select the Retry button if you fixed the problem from another
2218 The replace dialog is shown when you attempt to copy or move a file on
2219 the top of an existing file. The dialog shows the dates and sizes of
2220 the both files. Press the Yes button to overwrite the file, the No
2221 button to skip the file, the alL button to overwrite all the files,
2222 the nonE button to never overwrite and the Update button to overwrite
2223 if the source file is newer than the target file. You can abort the
2224 whole operation by pressing the Abort button.
2226 The recursive delete dialog is shown when you try to delete a
2227 directory which is not empty. Press the Yes button to delete the
2228 directory recursively, the No button to skip the directory, the alL
2229 button to delete all the directories and the nonE button to skip all
2230 the non-empty directories. You can abort the whole operation by
2231 pressing the Abort button. If you selected the Yes or alL button you
2232 will be asked for a confirmation. Type "yes" only if you are really
2233 sure you want to do the recursive delete.
2235 If you have tagged files and perform an operation on them only the
2236 files on which the operation succeeded are untagged. Failed and
2237 skipped files are left tagged.
2239 .SH "Mask Copy/Rename"
2240 The copy/move operations lets you translate the names of files in an easy
2241 way. To do it, you have to specify the correct source mask and usually in
2242 the trailing part of the destination specify some wildcards.
2243 All the files matching the source mask are copied/renamed according to
2244 the target mask. If there are tagged files, only the tagged files
2245 matching the source mask are renamed.
2247 There are other option which you can set:
2249 Follow links tells whether make the symlinks and hardlinks in the source
2250 directory (recursively in subdirectories) new links in the target
2251 directory or whether would you like to copy their content.
2253 Dive into subdirs tells what to do if in the target
2254 directory exists a directory with the same name as the
2255 file/directory being copied. The default action is to copy
2256 it's content into that directory, by enabling this
2257 you can copy the source directory into that directory.
2258 Perhaps an example will help:
2260 You want to copy content of a directory foo to /bla/foo,
2261 which is an already existing directory. Normally (when
2262 Dive is not set), mc would copy it exactly into /bla/foo.
2263 By enabling this option you will copy the content into /bla/foo/foo,
2264 because the directory already exists.
2266 Preserve attributes tells whether to preserve the original files'
2267 permissions, timestamps and if you are root whether to preserve
2268 the original files' UID and GID. If this option is not set the current
2269 value of the umask will be respected.
2271 .B "Use shell patterns on"
2273 When the shell patterns option is on you can use the '*' and '?'
2274 wildcards in the source mask. They work like they do in the shell. In
2275 the target mask only the '*' and '\\<digit>' wildcards are allowed. The
2276 first '*' wildcard in the target mask corresponds to the first
2277 wildcard group in the source mask, the second '*' corresponds to the
2278 second group and so on. The '\\1' wildcard corresponds to the first
2279 wildcard group in the source mask, the '\\2' wildcard corresponds to
2280 the second group and so on all the way up to '\\9'. The '\\0' wildcard
2281 is the whole filename of the source file.
2285 If the source mask is "*.tar.gz", the destination is "/bla/*.tgz" and the
2286 file to be copied is "foo.tar.gz", the copy will be "foo.tgz" in "/bla".
2288 Let's suppose you want to swap basename and extension so that "file.c"
2289 will become "c.file" and so on. The source mask for this is "*.*" and
2290 the destination is "\\2.\\1".
2292 .B "Use shell patterns off"
2294 When the shell patterns option is off the MC doesn't do automatic
2295 grouping anymore. You must use '\\(...\\)' expressions in the source
2296 mask to specify meaning for the wildcards in the target mask. This is
2297 more flexible but also requires more typing. Otherwise target masks
2298 are similar to the situation when the shell patterns option is on.
2302 If the source mask is "^\\(.*\\)\\.tar\\.gz$", the destination is
2303 "/bla/*.tgz" and the file to be copied is "foo.tar.gz", the copy
2304 will be "/bla/foo.tgz".
2306 Let's suppose you want to swap basename and extension so that "file.c"
2307 will become "c.file" and so on. The source mask for this is
2308 "^\\(.*\\)\\.\\(.*\\)$" and the destination is "\\2.\\1".
2310 .B "Case Conversions"
2312 You can also change the case of the filenames. If you use '\\u'
2313 or '\\l' in the target mask, the next character will be converted to
2314 uppercase or lowercase correspondingly.
2316 If you use '\\U' or '\\L' in the target mask, the next characters will
2317 be converted to uppercase or lowercase correspondingly up to the
2318 next '\\E' or next '\\U', '\\L' or the end of the file name.
2320 The '\\u' and '\\l' are stronger than '\\U' and '\\L'.
2322 For example, if the source mask is '*' (shell patterns on) or '^\\(.*\\)$'
2323 (shell patterns off) and the target mask is '\\L\\u*' the file names
2324 will be converted to have initial upper case and otherwise lower case.
2326 You can also use '\\' as a quote character. For example, '\\\\' is
2327 a backslash and '\\*' is an asterisk.
2329 .SH "Internal File Viewer"
2330 The internal file viewer provides two display modes: ASCII and hex.
2331 To toggle between modes, use the F4 key. If you have the GNU gzip
2332 program installed, it will be used to automatically decompress the
2335 The viewer will try to use the best method provided by your system or
2336 the file type to display the information. The internal file viewer
2337 will interpret some string sequences to set the bold and underline
2338 attributes, thus making a pretty display of your files.
2340 When in hex mode, the search function accepts text in quotes and
2341 constant numbers. Text in quotes is matched exactly after removing
2342 the quotes. Each number matches one byte. You can mix quoted text
2343 with constants like this:
2346 "String" -1 0xBB 012 "more text"
2349 Note that 012 is an octal number. -1 is converted to 0xFF.
2351 Some internal details about the viewer: On systems that provide the
2352 mmap(2) system call, the program maps the file instead of loading it;
2353 if the system does not provide the mmap(2) system call or the file
2354 matches an action that requires a filter, then the viewer will use
2355 it's growing buffers, thus loading only those parts of the file that
2356 you actually access (this includes compressed files).
2358 Here is a listing of the actions associated with each key that the
2359 Midnight Commander handles in the internal file viewer.
2362 Invoke the builtin hypertext help viewer.
2365 Toggle the wrap mode.
2368 Toggle the hex mode.
2371 Goto line. This will prompt you for a line number and will display
2375 Regular expression search.
2378 Reverse regular expression search.
2381 Normal search / hex mode search.
2384 Start normal search if there was no previous search expression else
2388 Start reverse search if there was no previous search expression else
2392 Toggle Raw/Parsed mode: This will show the file as found on disk or if
2393 a processing filter has been specified in the mc.ext file, then the
2394 output from the filter. Current mode is always the other than written
2395 on the button label, since on the button is the mode which you enter
2399 Toggle the format/unformat mode: when format mode is on the viewer
2400 will interpret some string sequences to show bold and underline with
2401 different colors. Also, on button label is the other mode than current.
2404 Exit the internal file viewer.
2406 .B next-page, space, C-v.
2407 Scroll one page forward.
2409 .B prev-page, M-v, C-b, backspace.
2410 Scroll one page backward.
2413 Scroll one line forward.
2416 Scroll one line backward.
2422 Switch to the subshell and show the command screen.
2425 Like C-o, but run a new shell if the subshell is not running.
2434 Jump to the next file.
2437 Jump to the previous file.
2442 It's possible to instruct the file viewer how to display a file, look
2445 Extension File Edit section
2446 .\"Extension File Edit"
2447 .SH "Internal File Editor"
2448 The internal file editor provides most of the features of
2449 common full screen editors. It is invoked using
2453 .I use_internal_edit
2454 option is set in the initialization file. It has an extendable file size
2455 limit of sixteen megabytes and edits binary files flawlessly.
2457 The features it presently supports are: Block
2458 copy, move, delete, cut, paste;
2459 .I "key for key undo";
2461 menus; file insertion; macro definition; regular expression
2462 search and replace (and our own scanf-printf search and
2463 replace); shift-arrow MSW-MAC text highlighting (for the
2464 linux console only); insert-overwrite toggle; and an option
2465 to pipe text blocks through shell commands like indent.
2467 The editor is very easy to use and requires no tutoring.
2468 To see what keys do what, just consult the appropriate
2469 pull-down menu. Other keys are: Shift movement
2470 keys do text highlighting.
2473 .B cooledit.clip and
2475 pastes from cooledit.clip.
2481 deletes highlighted text. The completion key also does a Return
2482 with an automatic indent. Mouse highlighting also works, and you
2483 can override the mouse as usual by holding down the shift key
2484 while dragging the mouse to let normal terminal mouse highlighting
2487 To define a macro, press
2489 and then type out the key
2490 strokes you want to be executed. Press
2492 again when finished. You can then assign the macro to any key you
2493 like by pressing that key. The macro is executed when you press
2494 .B Ctrl-A and then the assigned key. The macro is also executed if
2495 you press Meta, Ctrl, or Esc and the assigned key, provided that the
2496 key is not used for any other function. Once defined, the macro
2497 commands go into the file
2498 .B .mc/cedit/cooledit.macros
2499 in your home directory. You can delete a macro by deleting the
2500 appropriate line in this file.
2503 will format the currently highlighted block (plain text or
2507 code or another). This is controlled by the
2509 .B @prefix@/lib/mc/edit.indent.rc
2511 .B .mc/cedit/edit.indent.rc
2512 in your home directory the first time you use it.
2514 You can use scanf search and replace to search and replace
2515 a C format string. First take a look at the
2518 .B sprintf man pages to see what a format string
2519 is and how it works. An example is as follows: Suppose you want
2520 to replace all occurrences of say, an open bracket, three
2521 comma separated numbers, and a close bracket, with the
2524 the third number, the word
2526 and then the second number, I would fill in the Replace dialog
2532 Enter replace string
2533 apples %d oranges %d
2534 Enter replacement argument order
2538 The last line specifies that the third and then the second
2539 number are to be used in place of the first and second.
2541 It is advisable to use this feature with Prompt on replace on, because
2542 a match is thought to be found whenever the number of arguments found
2543 matches the number given, which is not always a real match. Scanf also
2544 treats whitespace as being elastic. Note that the scanf format % is
2545 very useful for scanning strings, and whitespace.
2547 The editor also displays non-us characters (160+). When editing
2548 binary files, you should set
2550 to 7 bits in the options menu to keep the spacing clean.
2554 in the source tree for some more info.
2557 Let the Midnight Commander type for you.
2559 Attempt to perform completion on the text before current position. MC
2560 attempts completion treating the text as variable (if the text begins with
2562 ), username (if the text begins with
2564 ), hostname (if the text
2567 ) or command (if you are on the command line in the
2568 position where you might type a command, possible completions then include
2569 shell reserved words and shell builtin commands as well) in turn. If none
2570 of these produces a match, filename completion is attempted.
2572 Filename, username, variable and hostname completion works on all input
2573 lines, command completion is command line specific.
2574 If the completion is ambiguous (there are more different possibilities),
2575 MC beeps and the following action depends on the setting of the
2576 .I Complete: show all
2581 dialog. If it is enabled, a list of all
2582 possibilities pops up next to the current position and you can select with
2585 the correct entry. You can also type the first letters in which the
2586 possibilities differ to move to a subset of all possibilities and complete
2587 as much as possible. If you press
2589 again, only the subset will be shown in the listbox, otherwise the first
2590 item which matches all the previous characters will be highlighted. As soon
2591 as there is no ambiguity, dialog disappears, but you can hide it by
2595 and left and right arrow keys. If
2599 is disabled, the dialog pops up only if you press
2601 for the second time, for the first time MC just beeps.
2603 .SH "Virtual File System"
2604 The Midnight Commander is provided with a code layer to access the
2605 file system; this code layer is known as the virtual file system
2606 switch. The virtual file system switch allows the Midnight Commander
2607 to manipulate files not located on the Unix file system.
2609 Currently the Midnight Commander is packaged with some Virtual File
2610 Systems (VFS): the local file system, used for accessing the regular
2611 Unix file system; the ftpfs, used to manipulate files on remote
2612 systems with the FTP protocol; the tarfs, used to manipulate tar and
2613 compressed tar files; the undelfs, used to recover deleted files on
2614 ext2 file systems (the default file system for Linux systems), fish
2615 (for manipulating files over shell connections such as rsh and ssh) and
2616 finally the mcfs (Midnight Commander file system), a network based
2619 The VFS switch code will interpret all of the path names used and will
2620 forward them to the correct file system, the formats used for each one
2621 of the file systems is described later in their own section.
2623 .SH " FTP File System"
2624 The ftpfs allows you to manipulate files on remote machines, to
2625 actually use it, you may try to use the panel command FTP link
2626 (accessible from the menubar) or you may directly change your current
2627 directory to it using the cd command to a path name that looks like this:
2629 .I /#ftp:[!][user[:pass]@]machine[:port][remote-dir]
2635 elements are optional. If you specify the
2637 element, then the Midnight Commander will try to logon on the remote
2638 machine as that user, otherwise it will use your login name. The
2641 element, if present is the password used for the connection. This is not
2642 recommended (nor keeping the password in your hotlist, unless you set the
2643 appropriate permissions there, and even then it may not be entirely safe).
2648 /#ftp:ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx/linux/local
2649 /#ftp:tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages
2650 /#ftp:!behind.firewall.edu/pub
2651 /#ftp:guest@remote-host.com:40/pub
2652 /#ftp:miguel:xxx@server/pub
2655 To connect to sites behind a firewall, you will need to use the prefix
2656 ftp://! (i.e., with a bang character after the double slash) to make
2657 the Midnight Commander use a proxy host for doing the ftp transfer.
2658 You can define the proxy host in the
2664 Another option to set is the
2665 .I Always use ftp proxy
2670 dialog box. This will configure the program
2671 to always use the proxy host. If this variable is set, the program
2672 will do two things: consult the @prefix@/lib/mc/mc.no_proxy file for
2673 lines containing host names that are local (if the host name starts
2674 with a dot, it is assumed to be a domain) and to assume that any
2675 hostnames without dots in their names are directly accessible.
2677 If you are using the ftpfs code with a filtering packet router that
2678 does not allow you to use the regular mode of opening files, you may
2679 want to force the program to use the passive-open mode. To use this,
2680 set the ftpfs_use_passive_connections option in the initialization file.
2682 The Midnight Commander keeps the directory listing in a cache. The cache
2683 expire time is configurable in the
2687 dialog box. This has the funny behavior that even if you make changes to a
2688 directory, they will not be reflected in the directory listing until you
2689 force a cache reload with the C-r key. This is a feature (when you think
2690 it's a bug, think about manipulating files on the other side of the Atlantic
2693 .SH " Tar File System"
2694 The tar file system provides you with read-only access to your tar
2695 files and compressed tar files by using the chdir command. To change
2696 your directory to a tar file, you change your current directory to the
2697 tar file by using the following syntax:
2699 .I /filename.tar:utar/[dir-inside-tar]
2701 The mc.ext file already provides a shortcut for tar files, this means
2702 that usually you just point to a tar file and press return to enter
2703 into the tar file, see the
2706 .\"Extension File Edit"
2707 section for details on how this is done.
2712 mc-3.0.tar.gz#utar/mc-3.0/vfs
2713 /ftp/GCC/gcc-2.7.0.tar#utar
2716 The latter specifies the full path of the tar archive.
2717 .SH " FIle transfer over SHell filesystem"
2719 The fish file system is a network based file system that allows you to
2720 manipulate the files in a remote machine as if they were local. To use
2721 this, the other side has to either run fish server, or has to have
2722 bash-compatible shell.
2724 To connect to a remote machine, you just need to chdir
2725 into a special directory which name is in the following
2729 /#sh:[user@]machine[:options]/[remote-dir]
2736 elements are optional. If
2739 element then the Midnight Commander
2740 will try to logon on the remote machine as that user,
2741 otherwise it will use your login name.
2745 are 'C' - use compression and 'rsh' use rsh instead
2748 element is present, your current directory on the remote machine will
2754 /#sh:onlyrsh.mx:r/linux/local
2755 /#sh:joe@want.compression.edu:C/private
2756 /#sh:joe@noncompressed.ssh.edu/private
2759 .SH " Network File System"
2760 The Midnight Commander file system is a network base file system that
2761 allows you to manipulate the files in a remote machine as if they
2762 were local. To use this, the remote machine must be running the
2763 mcserv(8) server program.
2765 To connect to a remote machine, you just need to chdir into a special
2766 directory which name is in the following format:
2768 .I /#mc:[user@]machine[:port][remote-dir]
2774 elements are optional. If you specify the
2776 element then the Midnight Commander will try to logon on the remote
2777 machine as that user, otherwise it will use your login name.
2781 element is used when the remote machine running on a special port
2782 (see the mcserv(8) manual page for more information about ports);
2785 element is present, your current directory on the remote machine will
2791 /#mc:ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx/linux/local
2792 /#mc:joe@foo.edu:11321/private
2795 .SH " Undelete File System"
2796 On Linux systems, if you asked configure to use the ext2fs undelete
2797 facilities, you will have the undelete file system available.
2798 Recovery of deleted files is only available on ext2 file systems. The
2799 undelete file system is just an interface to the ext2fs library to:
2800 retrieve all of the deleted files names on an ext2fs and provides and
2801 to extract the selected files into a regular partition.
2803 To use this file system, you have to chdir into the special file name
2804 formed by the "/#undel" prefix and the file name where the actual
2805 file system resides.
2807 For example, to recover deleted files on the second partition of the
2808 first SCSI disk on Linux, you would use the following path name:
2814 It may take a while for the undelfs to load the required information
2815 before you start browsing files there.
2818 The Midnight Commander will try to detect if your terminal supports
2819 color using the terminal database and your terminal name. Sometimes
2820 it gets confused, so you may force color mode or disable color mode
2821 using the -c and -b flag respectively.
2823 If the program is compiled with the Slang screen manager instead of
2824 ncurses, it will also check the variable
2826 if it is set, it has the same effect as the -c flag.
2828 You may specify terminals that always force color mode
2831 variable to the Colors
2832 section of the initialization file. This will prevent the
2833 Midnight Commander from trying to detect if your terminal
2834 supports color. Example:
2837 color_terminals=linux,xterm
2840 color_terminals=terminal-name1,terminal-name2...
2843 The program can be compiled with both ncurses and slang, ncurses does
2844 not provide a way to force color mode: ncurses uses just the
2845 information in the terminal database.
2847 The Midnight Commander provides a way to change the default colors.
2848 Currently the colors are configured using the environment variable
2850 or the Colors section in the initialization file.
2852 In the Colors section, the default color map is loaded from the
2854 variable. You can specify an alternate color map for a terminal by
2855 using the terminal name as the key in this section. Example:
2860 xterm=menu=magenta:marked=,magenta:markselect=,red
2863 The format for the color definition is:
2866 <keyword>=<foregroundcolor>,<backgroundcolor>:<keyword>= ...
2869 The colors are optional, and the keywords are: normal,
2870 selected, marked, markselect, errors, input, reverse, gauge;
2871 Menu colors are: menu, menusel, menuhot, menuhotsel; Dialog colors
2872 are: dnormal, dfocus, dhotnormal, dhotfocus; Help colors
2873 are: helpnormal, helpitalic, helpbold, helplink, helpslink;
2874 Viewer color is: viewunderline; Special highlighting colors are:
2875 executable, directory, link, device, special, core; Editor colors
2876 are: editnormal, editbold, editmarked.
2879 determines the color of input lines used in query dialogs.
2882 determines the color of the filled part of the progress bar
2883 (gauge), which shows how many percent of files were copied
2884 etc. in a graphical way.
2886 The dialog boxes use the following colors:
2888 is used for the normal text,
2890 is the color used for the currently selected component,
2892 is the color used to differentiate the hotkey color in normal
2893 components, whereas the
2895 color is used for the highlighted color in the currently selected
2898 Menus use the same scheme but uses the menu, menusel, menuhot and
2899 menuhotsel tags instead.
2901 Help uses the following colors:
2903 is used for normal text,
2905 is used for text which is emphasized in italic in the manual page,
2907 is used for text which is emphasized in bold in the manual page,
2909 is used for not selected hyperlinks and
2911 is used for selected hyperlink.
2913 Special highlight colors determine how files are displayed
2914 when file highlighting is enabled (see the section on
2919 is used for directories or symbolic links to directories;
2921 for executable files;
2923 is used for symbolic links which are neither stalled nor linked
2926 is used for stalled symbolic links;
2928 - character and block devices;
2930 is used for special files, such as pipes and sockets;
2934 The possible colors are: black, gray, red, brightred, green,
2935 brightgreen, brown, yellow, blue, brightblue, magenta, brightmagenta,
2936 cyan, brightcyan, lightgray and white. And there is a special keyword
2937 for transparent background. It is 'default'. The 'default' can only be
2938 used for background color. Example:
2941 base_color=normal=white,default:marked=magenta,default
2944 .SH "Special Settings"
2945 Most of the settings of the Midnight Commander can be changed from the
2946 menus. However, there are a small number of settings which can only be
2947 changed by editing the setup file.
2949 These variables may be set in your ~/.mc/ini file:
2951 .I clear_before_exec.
2953 By default the Midnight Commander clears the screen before executing a
2954 command. If you would prefer to see the output of the command at the
2955 bottom of the screen, edit your ~/mc.ini file and change the value of
2956 the field clear_before_exec to 0.
2958 .I confirm_view_dir.
2960 If you press F3 on a directory, normally MC enters that directory. If
2961 this flag is set to 1, then MC will ask for confirmation before
2962 changing the directory if you have files tagged.
2964 .I ftpfs_retry_seconds.
2966 This value is the number of seconds the Midnight Commander will wait
2967 before attempting to reconnect to an ftp server that has denied the login.
2968 If the value is zero, the login will no be retried.
2970 .I ftpfs_use_passive_connections.
2972 This option is by off default. This makes the ftpfs code use the
2973 passive open mode for transferring files. This is used by people that
2974 are behind a filtering packet router. This option just works if you
2975 are not using an ftp proxy.
2979 Specifies how many screen updates can be skipped at most in the internal
2980 file viewer. Normally this value is not significant, because the code
2981 automatically adjusts the number of updates to skip according to the rate
2982 of incoming keystrokes. However, on very slow machines or terminals
2983 with a fast keyboard auto repeat, a big value can make screen updates
2986 It seems that setting max_dirt_limit to 10 causes the best behavior,
2987 and that is the default value.
2989 .I mouse_move_pages.
2991 Controls whenever scrolling with the mouse is done by pages or line by
2994 .I mouse_move_pages_viewer.
2996 Controls if scrolling with the mouse is done by pages or line by line
2997 on the internal file viewer.
3001 By default the Midnight Commander treats the ESC key as a key prefix
3002 (old_esc_mode=0), if you set this option (old_esc_mode=1), then the
3003 ESC key will act as a prefix key for one second, and if no extra keys
3004 have arrived, then the ESC key is interpreted as a cancel key (ESC
3008 .I only_leading_plus_minus
3010 set special treatment for '+', '-', '*' in command line (select,
3011 unselect, reverse selection) only if command line is empty. No need to
3012 quote this characters in the middle of the command line. But we can not
3013 change selection when command line is not empty.
3014 .I panel_scroll_pages
3016 If set (the default), panel will scroll by half the display when the
3017 cursor reaches the end or the beginning of the panel, otherwise it
3018 will just scroll a file at a time.
3022 If this option is set (the default), when logged in as root the
3023 default will be to preserve the UID and the GID of files. Some users
3024 prefer to disable this option, so that's why it's configurable.
3026 .I show_output_starts_shell
3028 This variable only works if you are not using the subshell support.
3029 When you use the C-o keystroke to go back to the user screen, if this
3030 one is set, you will get a fresh shell. Otherwise, pressing any key
3031 will bring you back to the Midnight Commander.
3035 If this flag is set, then the home and end keys will work slightly
3036 different on the panels, instead of moving the selection to the first
3037 and last files in the panels, they will act as follows:
3039 The home key will: Go up to the middle line, if below it; else go to
3040 the top line unless it is already on the top line, in this case it
3041 will go to the first file in the panel.
3043 The end key has a similar behavior: Go down to the middle line, if
3044 over it; else go to the bottom line unless you already are at the
3045 bottom line, in such case it will move the selection to the last file
3048 .I use_file_to_guess_type
3050 If this variable is on (the default) it will spawn the file command to
3051 match the file types listed on the
3054 .\"Extension File Edit"
3058 If this variable is on (default is off) when you browse the file
3059 system on a Tree panel, it will automatically reload the other panel
3060 with the contents of the selected directory.
3062 .SH "Terminal databases"
3063 The Midnight Commander provides a way to fix your system terminal
3064 database without requiring root privileges. The Midnight Commander
3065 searches in the system initialization file (the mc.lib file located in
3066 the Midnight Commander library directory) and in the ~/.mc/ini file
3067 for the section "terminal:your-terminal-name" and then for the section
3068 "terminal:general", each line of the section contains a key symbol
3069 that you want to define, followed by an equal sign and the definition
3070 for the key. You can use the special \\e form to represent the escape
3071 character and the ^x to represent the control-x character.
3073 The possible key symbols are:
3076 f0 to f20 Function keys f0-f20
3083 right right arrow key
3086 insert the insert character
3087 delete the delete character
3088 complete to do completion
3091 For example, to define the key insert to be the Escape + [ + O + p, you
3092 set this in the ini file:
3100 key symbol represents the escape sequences used to invoke the
3101 completion process, this is invoked with M-tab, but you can define
3102 other keys to do the same work (on those keyboard with tons of nice
3103 and unused keys everywhere).
3108 The program will retrieve all of its information relative to the
3109 MCHOME environment variable, if this variable is not set, then it will
3110 fall back to the @prefix@ directory.
3112 @prefix@/lib/mc/mc.hlp
3114 The help file for the program.
3116 @prefix@/lib/mc/mc.ext
3118 The default system-wide extensions file.
3122 User's own extension, view configuration and edit configuration
3123 file. They override the contents of the system wide files if present.
3125 @prefix@/lib/mc/mc.ini
3127 The default system-wide setup for the Midnight Commander, used only if
3128 the user doesn't have his own ~/.mc/ini file.
3130 @prefix@/lib/mc/mc.lib
3132 Global settings for the Midnight Commander. Settings in this file
3133 affect all users, whether they have ~/.mc/ini or not, as long as
3134 ~/.mc/ini doesn't override them. Currently, only
3137 .\"Terminal databases"
3138 are loaded from mc.lib.
3142 User's own setup. If this file is present then the setup is loaded
3143 from here instead of the system-wide startup file.
3145 @prefix@/lib/mc/mc.hint
3147 This file contains the hints (cookies) displayed by the program.
3149 @prefix@/lib/mc/mc.menu
3151 This file contains the default system-wide applications menu.
3155 User's own application menu. If this file is present it is used
3156 instead of the system-wide applications menu.
3160 The directory list for the directory tree and tree view features.
3164 Local user-defined menu. If this file
3165 is present it is used instead of the home or system-wide
3170 This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
3171 License as published by the Free Software Foundation. See the built-in
3172 help for details on the License and the lack of warranty.
3174 The latest version of this program can be found at
3175 ftp://ftp.gnome.org/mirror/gnome.org/stable/sources/mc/ and on the
3176 mirrors listed on the GNOME site http://www.gnome.org/.
3178 ed(1), gpm(1), mcserv(8), terminfo(1), view(1), sh(1), bash(1),
3182 The Midnight Commander page on the World Wide Web:
3183 http://www.gnome.org/mc/
3187 Miguel de Icaza (miguel@ximian.com), Janne Kukonlehto
3188 (jtklehto@paju.oulu.fi), Radek Doulik (rodo@ucw.cz), Fred
3189 Leeflang (fredl@nebula.ow.org), Dugan Porter (dugan@b011.eunet.es),
3190 Jakub Jelinek (jj@sunsite.mff.cuni.cz), Ching Hui
3191 (mr854307@cs.nthu.edu.tw), Andrej Borsenkow (borsenkow.msk@sni.de),
3192 Norbert Warmuth (nwarmuth@privat.circular.de),
3193 Mauricio Plaza (mok@roxanne.nuclecu.unam.mx), Paul Sheer
3194 (psheer@icon.co.za), Pavel Machek (pavel@ucw.cz) and Pavel Roskin
3195 (proski@gnu.org) are the developers of this package.
3196 Alessandro Rubini (rubini@ipvvis.unipv.it) has been especially helpful
3197 debugging and enhancing the program's mouse support, John Davis
3198 (davis@space.mit.edu) also made his S-Lang library available to us
3199 under the GPL and answered my questions about it, and the following
3200 people have contributed code and many bug fixes (in alphabetical
3203 Adam Tla/lka (atlka@sunrise.pg.gda.pl),
3204 alex@bcs.zp.ua (Alex I. Tkachenko), Antonio Palama,
3205 DOS port (palama@posso.dm.unipi.it), Erwin van Eijk
3206 (wabbit@corner.iaf.nl), Gerd Knorr (kraxel@cs.tu-berlin.de),
3207 Jean-Daniel Luiset (luiset@cih.hcuge.ch), Jon Stevens
3208 (root@dolphin.csudh.edu), Juan Francisco Grigera, Win32 port
3209 (j-grigera@usa.net), Juan Jose Ciarlante (jjciarla@raiz.uncu.edu.ar),
3210 Ilya Rybkin (rybkin@rouge.phys.lsu.edu), Marcelo Roccasalva
3211 (mfroccas@raiz.uncu.edu.ar), Massimo Fontanelli (MC8737@mclink.it),
3212 Sergey Ya. Korshunoff (root@seyko.msk.su), Thomas Pundt
3213 (pundtt@math.uni-muenster.de), Timur Bakeyev
3214 (timur@goff.comtat.kazan.su), Tomasz Cholewo
3215 (tjchol01@mecca.spd.louisville.edu), Torben Fjerdingstad
3216 (torben.fjerdingstad@uni-c.dk), Vadim Sinolitis (vvs@nsrd.npi.msu.su)
3217 and Wim Osterholt (wim@djo.wtm.tudelft.nl).
3220 See the file TODO in the distribution for information on what
3223 If you want to report a problem with the program, please send mail to
3224 this address: mc-devel@gnome.org.
3226 Provide a detailed description of the bug, the version of the program
3227 you are running (mc -V display this information), the operating system
3228 you are running the program on and if the program crashes, we would
3229 appreciate a stack trace.